European leaders should not shy away from a proposal to buy back the bonds of troubled euro member states but should not rely too much on rich countries, Eurogroup Chief Jean-Claude Juncker said. "It would be wrong to create taboos but we cannot overstretch the strong countries," Juncker said in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel seen by Reuters on Saturday ahead of publication.
A source told Reuters on Thursday that eurozone ministers are considering whether the bloc's rescue fund could buy back bonds of debt-ridden states, a plan Portugal said it supported. Der Spiegel magazine also reported in an unsourced reported that the idea of a buy-back, which it said was first raised by the European rescue fund's chief Klaus Regling, had been greeted with sympathy by euro zone finance ministers this week.
Without citing any sources, Der Spiegel said Regling's suggestion stood good chances of becoming reality. It also cited an unnamed high-ranking German finance ministry source as saying this was a good idea, running counter to official German denials this week.
Greece and Germany have insisted Greece, the first to succumb in the currency bloc's debt crisis, needed no help with debt repayments. A spokesman for EFSF's Regling declined comment but referred to an interview earlier this week in which he said Greece did not need a restructuring of debt, while the Greek finance ministry again denied there have been any discussions on restructuring.
Greece wants to stretch out repayment of the emergency funding it is getting from the IMF and its eurozone peers but is not in talks to restructure its debt, its deputy finance minister reiterated on Friday. Under the proposal being discussed, the EFSF would be able to conduct buy-back operations of bonds of a distressed country, which could help stabilise its debt market, Reuters sources have said.
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